1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a keyboard for keyboard instruments. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a keyboard which is manufactured in the form of a thin plate pad made of silicon rubber so that it can function as a keyboard, and a keyboard manufactured by the method.
2. Description of the Related Art
In case of keyboard instruments such as a piano, a user generally strikes white or black keys with his/her fingers and causes strings to vibrate so that music can be played. To this end, the keyboard is manufactured in such a manner that the keys are separately operated.
The conventional keys have been generally made from an ivory of elephants, however, the keys are recently formed by shaving a piece of wood into a key shape and painting the keys with black or white colors so as to indicate and distinguish white and black keys.
However, since the piano itself as well as the keyboard is generally made of very thick wood, it is too heavy for man to carry the piano. Therefore, the mobility thereof is considerably restricted. Further, since the volume of the piano is greatly large, there is inconvenience in that a relatively large space is required for storing the piano.
Accordingly, in order to reduce weight of musical instruments than that of the conventional piano and allow sounds of string or percussion instruments other than the piano to be produced, digital keyboard instruments have been recently developed.
In the digital keyboard instruments, sensors for detecting which keys are struck by the user are installed below the keyboard so that the set digital sounds corresponding to the detected keys can be produced. The weight of the digital keyboard instruments has been greatly reduced as compared with the conventional wooden piano, and the mobility and storage capability are considerably enhanced.
Notwithstanding, the digital keyboard instrument has been configured in such a manner that a plurality of keys which are basically operated separately are positioned at an upper portion of the instrument and a support frame for the keys is installed at a lower portion thereof. Therefore, there is a problem in that it is difficult to carry and move the digital keyboard instruments.
Further, although the electronics industry has been remarkably developed, a study on miniaturization and reduction of weight of the controller unit for producing the digital sound makes little progress. Therefore, there is still another problem in that the controller unit as well as the keyboard causes the weight of the keyboard instruments to be remarkably increased.
To overcome the above problems, there is a tendency to reduce the weight of the digital instruments by forming the keyboard out of plastics. However, since there is no resiliency in the plastic keys when a user strikes the keys with his/her finger, an excessive load is apt to be applied to the user's finger joints. Therefore, the keyboard instruments of this kind are manufactured as the playing tools for children rather than the performance instrument.
Accordingly, there is a need to manufacture the keyboard which is very light and small in order to enhance the mobility and storage capability of the keyboard instruments and is suitable for playing the instruments for a long time because an excessive load is not applied to the fingers due to a certain degree of elasticity.